Short welcome to talk through the day ahead and a bit of background on why we are here and what you can expect.

We’ve entered a decade which will see unprecedented technological change from self-driving cars and widespread automation to the very fabric of societies - money, politics and culture - under increasing pressure from new technologies. How will social media platforms and users adapt? And what does that mean for how hospitality businesses will need to operate to thrive in digital in the coming years? 

Consumer trust and interest in marketing online is at an all time low. The best brands have stopped promoting and instead started creating true value for the people who are most likely to care and become loyal customers. We’ll look at how and why they do this through quality, authoritative content that people actually want to see in their feeds.

As the famous line from Simon Sinek goes, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. Consumers are increasingly looking to brands to stand for shared values relating to environmental and cultural issues. We’ll look at how the best in the business use social media to convey their values and leverage this opportunity to connect more deeply in social.

The audience of the 2020s won’t hang around for agency/client reviews and approvals. Today’s social marketer must be armed with creation tools they themselves can wield. Only recently has this realistically become possible, with the output from mobile studio apps now barely distinguishable from professionally crafted content. We’ll look at the key tools and tactics for creating valuable, slick content on the fly.

Vanity metrics are becoming less visible, while many brands are finding micro and nano influencers easier to work with. This has levelled the playing field and made us rethink how we involve influencers in campaigns. We’ll look at how this is working for some key brands and how we can more effectively leverage this misunderstood yet invaluable channel.

Based on years of experience pushing the micro-targeting ad tools to their limits, Will shares his top tips for getting the maximum value out of your ad spend, whether it’s £10 or £10m. We’ll look at how to guide customers through the process of thinking about and then acting on a purchase, through smart uses of data and analytics combined with irresistible creative and copywriting.

We end the day with a recap on the most important points, with Will setting out some low-effort, high-impact actions that delegates can do straight away to move the needle on their social marketing.